Question-Week ending Sunday 01/19/03:
When you have set CHALLENGING goals for yourself in the past, to what degree did you believe you would actually achieve those challenging goals? Please read our Poll Commentary before taking this poll.
Pre-Poll Commentary:
This week's poll will be the first of a new series discussing our Goal Planning System, as described in last week's edition. We'll begin this series with step one of seven steps: Identifying your need or DESIRE and ABSOLUTELY BELIEVING that you could achieve your goal.
We all have many desires in life. If we had a choice, we would all probably desire to be handsome or beautiful; be the perfect height and weight; in perfect shape; extremely knowledgeable and worldly; very wealthy; have a perfect loving and caring family; have loyal and generous friends; have the time to travel the world in style; etc. By now I think you get the point that our wish lists or desires can be endless. There are some things that we can change. Some we cannot. For example you can't change your height from 5 feet 4 inches to six feet tall. However, you can become knowledgeable and worldly, very wealthy, or travel the world in style. Thus, in setting goals you must first have a clear understanding about what things can and cannot be changed or accomplished. With the exception of truly impossible physical feats, I believe that almost anything is possible if you desire it enough, believe passionately that you can accomplish it, have a clear plan, and execute flawlessly.
Because we all have so many wants and desires, the first step toward achieving a single goal is to focus in and choose what it is that you truly need and want and sincerely believe you could accomplish it. If you really want something bad enough, but are unsure if you can actually accomplish it, here's what you should do. Go and seek out information on who already accomplished that goal and find out how they did it. Once you know that someone else did it, you will absolutely know it's possible. You can also learn from their experiences and build the confidence you need to do it yourself. After all someone else did it. Are you chopped liver?
Thus focusing in on what you REALLY DESIRE and BELIEVING in your ability to accomplish that goal is the first step in our Goal Planning System.
Let us know to what degree you believed you would actually achieve the goals you have set for yourself in the past. This poll will end on Sunday 01/19/03. Watch for the results and summary by Monday morning 01/20/03.
Results:
57% answered Somewhat-believed 80% in achieving goals set
23% answered Strong-believed 90% in achieving goals set
19% answered Skeptical-believed 70% in achieving goals set
01% answered Not Much-believed 60% in achieving goals set
00% answered Exceptional-believed 100% in achieving goals
Post-Poll Commentary:
This poll was quite revealing about how strongly our respondents believed they would achieve challenging goals. I was not surprised with the results at the two ends of the spectrum. I did not expect many to answer that they believed in achieving their goals 100%. As a matter of fact no one answered with this degree of positive thinking. Also only 1% believed they had only a 60% chance. That was also understandable. What was surprising was our top answer: 57% of respondents believed they only had an 80% chance of achieving their challenging goals. That 80% belief factor is much too low if you are serious about achieving a worthy goal.
There are two likely explanations for such a low belief rate. Either the goals people are setting are too difficult to achieve or the confidence and self esteem level of our goal setters need a boost. Either explanation has a remedy. As we progress over the next six weeks in these polls, the remedies will become clearer each week.
However for now, it's important that we set small achievable goals often and always hit our targets. In doing so, we are getting used to achieving what we set out to do and our belief rate for more challenging goals will get a boost. Become a goal setter and enjoy the process. Life will be more fulfilling and rewarding.